Wrapper: Dominican Maduro
Binder: Dominican (Criollo + San Vicente)
Filler: Dominican + Estelí, Nicaragua
Size: 6 X 51 (Toro)
Strength: Medium/Medium+
Price: $12-$16
Date Released: February 3, 2023 (Yearly LCA February Drop)
Aging: 3 years post‑roll
Factory/Blender: Tabacalera La Perla (Nicaragua)/Unspecified
I’ve been on an LCA kick lately, and since my local lounge is an LCA retailer, the first place I look when I step into the humidor is their LCA shelf. I was standing there, lost in thought, scanning the stock in front of me, when the sales associate who’d walked in with me said, “Have you tried the Happy Meal? It’s different.” The moment I heard “different,” that was enough. I grabbed a couple.
I wasn’t planning on reviewing the cigar right away. But after buying it, I looked it up to check the leaf stats and general information, and the three years of post‑roll aging immediately caught my attention. Then, once I lit it and got the cigar going, the profile stopped me cold. With a blend built predominantly on Dominican leaf, I was expecting something expressive and unstructured. Instead, the cigar was structured and driven and surprisingly muscular, compelling me to think this thing meant business.
And with three years of aging, it was ready for a proper evaluation.
The first thing I noticed when I pulled the cigar from the wrapper was how brown the cello was. That kind of discoloration is a clear sign that the oils had been migrating to the surface for a long time. But when I smelled the wrapper, I had to pull back. The aroma was thick with musty barnyard, dirty leather, and wet cardboard—an aggressive mix that caught me off guard. Phew. But once I punched the cap and took a cold draw, all I got were hay, toasted nuts, and a little nutmeg. That gave me an immediate sense of relief.
Any lingering doubts I had disappeared the moment I lit the cigar. The first few puffs were a marvelous mix of roasted peanuts in the shell—the ballpark kind—a touch of vanilla, a dusting of cocoa powder, and a lifting sweetness on the finish. It was an immediate course correction from the rough wrapper aroma, and it told me right away that this cigar had something to say.
And once it got going in the first inch, it certainly got down to business. Strength jumped to the plus side of medium—thankfully without a matching hit of nicotine—and the cigar locked in its base of roasted peanuts, nougat, black coffee, cocoa powder, and a light cayenne spice. A pleasing light, floral, sugary sweetness wove through the profile but stayed ambient, merging with the cayenne to create a pervasive sweet‑spicy finish. As I mentioned above, the profile was muscular, with the dark maduro wrapper and Nicaraguan filler doing their jobs to anchor the cigar for what was to come.
Suddenly, the cigar shifted gears. A playful side emerged and started moving in a completely different direction. It opened with a light, floral, sugary sweetness that floated above the structure without ever settling into it. Then came sweet vanilla cream, flashes of star anise, and even an impression of French fries — almost certainly the peanut oil echoing the roasted nut core. At times the sweetness leaned toward nougat; at others it drifted into toasted hazelnut or marzipan territory. None of these flavors built on the base or merged with it. They moved around it, always anchored but never fixed in place.
As the cigar moved into the second half, the playful side didn’t calm down — it expanded. Dulce de leche appeared, followed by salted caramel, and then a completely unexpected burst of Bazooka bubble gum. Toasted almonds joined the mix, along with a slightly meaty, savory note that wasn’t part of the core but helped keep the profile grounded. The sweetness and spice began to integrate, creating a rotating lens where each puff emphasized something different. Coffee intensified and moved to the foreground, while the playful side kept tossing out new combinations like a kaleidoscope.
What made the whole thing so compelling was that, despite behaving like a typical unstructured Dominican with its array of shifting flavors, it never felt unstructured. The base kept its posture — peanuts, cocoa, coffee, cayenne, nougat — while the playful side ran wild above it.
Once the cigar entered the home stretch, the core finally came together. The black coffee that had been firm and bitter‑edged earlier picked up some half‑and‑half, smoothing out and integrating with the spice and the lingering sweetness. The result was a genuinely creamy core — the first moment where all the structural elements aligned.
The transitions slowed, but the foreground still had plenty of activity. Nougat resurfaced, darker and denser than before. Dark caramel joined in, followed by dark‑toasted sourdough, pistachio, and roasted chestnut. The overall tone shifted slightly darker, not heavier, just deeper. Strength ticked up a notch, and the spice became a little more assertive, but the smoke stayed incredibly smooth, just as it had been the entire progression.
What kept standing out was how unlike any Dominican cigar this was. With all the Dominican tobacco in the blend, you’d expect softness or drift, but there was none of that. At the same time, it wasn’t bold or muscular in the Nicaraguan sense. It occupied a middle ground — firm, structured, and unusually disciplined for a Dominican profile. Then cedar appeared out of nowhere and immediately locked into the core as if it had been waiting to join the party.
For a blend loaded with Dominican tobacco, it never behaved like the soft, wandering profiles I usually associate with DR-heavy cigars. But it wasn’t aggressive either. It just held its line from start to finish, which is rare. I have no idea who blended it, or if a named blender was even involved, but whoever built this thing clearly knew how to keep a profile on track.
And when it was over, the finish was surprisingly bright. Low nicotine, clean shutdown, and the same refreshed feeling you get after something citrusy — like a mai tai or a rum punch. No heaviness, no muddiness, just a clean exit.
Total smoke time: 1:40
Rating: 94
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Categories: CIGAR REVIEWS
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